Avalos
is the fourth UTB student to receive the Nelson scholarship – and he is the
only piano student to be selected since its inception five years ago.

“I
am honored to receive this amazing scholarship, and I am so grateful to the
Texas Association of Music Schools,” Avalos said. “And, I am relieved; this
will let me work on my music and not have to think about taking out loans for
school.”

Avalos
credits his piano instructor, Professor
Richard Urbis,
for supporting him in his piano studies and guiding him through the application
process.

“Mr.
Urbis worked with me all semester,” Avalos said. “He helped me prepare my music
selections and bring them to a degree of accomplishment that I was comfortable
sending in my audition.”

To
apply for the Nelson scholarship, students must write an essay, submit three
letters of recommendation from professors, and send in a recording of the
student performing their musical selections.

“I
have never had to challenge Ramses to study,” said Urbis. “He is one of the
best and most dedicated students that I have been pleased to mentor. He is a
scholar, he is ethical, and I know he will succeed in making his community a
better place by sharing his remarkable talent.”

That
talent became apparent when Avalos asked his parents if he could study piano at
the age of seven, and he began taking lessons. When he was ten, they enrolled
him at the UTB
Music Academy,
which offers private music lessons, group
instruction and performance ensembles for children and adults.

“I studied
for seven years with Mr. Uzziel Guzman at the academy before my family left
Brownsville,” said Avalos. “We moved to Tepic, Nayarit, a state on Mexico’s
central Pacific coast, when I was 16.”

In
Tepic, Avalos was unable to find a teacher that could challenge him, so he
practiced on his own. After graduating from high school three years later, he
followed his brother, Anubis Avalos, back to Brownsville. Also a music
education major, Anubis Avalos recently became the music education teacher at
Champion Elementary School.

“My
brother started playing drums in middle school – that’s when I began piano,”
Avalos said. “I am a percussionist, too, and together we play in several bands
around town.”

Recently,
the brothers and their group Surrealistas played with Taffelmusik, a student
chamber music group. The show featured selections from The Beatles to close out
Taffelmusik’s summer series.

“I
enjoy playing pieces from the Romantic and Classical Eras, but primarily
the Romantic Era,” Avalos said. “My favorite composers are Chopin, Liszt and
Beethoven. For my spring recital, I am working on a sonata by Beethoven, an
etude by Liszt, and a piece by Villa-Lobos. Each is from a different musical
era, representing Classical, Romantic and Modern.”

Avalos’
sister, Isis, studied dance at The University of North Texas. The three Avalos
siblings talk about one day starting an arts academy.

“Maybe
here or in Mexico, we’re not sure at this point,” Avalos said.

For
the moment, the brothers share an apartment and play in bands together.

“I
read a lot about music history,” Avalos said. “I’m ready to travel to some of
the places that are so important in music, so I’m thinking about a semester
abroad – maybe Vienna or St.
Petersburg
– and now with this scholarship, that thought has much more chance of becoming
reality.”

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